History is to learn from and get smart in our understanding of
the truth, the goals, the interests, and the actions, so that we do not
suffer again, what we suffered in the past. Here is the history of
Hindu Holocaust. Keep in mind that the ideology and actions of Islam
that is a root cause of our past sufferings has not changed a single bit
since the birth of Islam. As a solution, one thing we Hindus could
do is to know our Sanatana Dharma well, practice it well and correctly,
spread it well, and expose the barbaric inhuman ideology of Islam to the
world. Jai Sanatana Dharma! Jai Sri Krishna! - S.
Vyas, mltipure@juno.com

Hindu History
Holocaust of HindusDuring the Muslim Occupation of India by Sudheer Birodkar

___________________________________________________________________

"The massacres perpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history,
bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of
the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the
South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese."
- Francois Gautier
___________________________________________________________________

This page is dedicated to the memory of those men, women and children
who were killed or were captured or converted by force to Islam over a
period of fourteen centuries in India and in other parts of the globe.
These men, women and children cannot be recalled for standing witness to
what was done to them by the swordsmen of Islam.

Hence we are going to rely on Muslim historians, in India and abroad,
who have written hundreds of glowing accounts of the devastation caused
by the progress of Islamic armies across the world (and in India). As our
focus is India, we are going to look only at what happened in India during
the Islamic invasion and the following struggle for independence from Islamic
rule that was waged by the Hindus. A pronounced feature of these Muslim
histories is a description - in smaller or greater detail but always with
considerable pride - of how the Hindus were slaughtered en masse or converted
by force, how hundreds of thousands of Hindu men and women and children
were captured as booty and sold into slavery, how Hindu temples and monasteries
were razed to the ground or burnt down, and how images of Hindu Gods and
Goddesses were destroyed or desecrated.

Commandments of Allah (Quran) and precedents set by the Prophet (Sunnah)
are frequently cited by the authors in support of what the swordsmen and
demolition squads of Islam did with extraordinary zeal, not only in the
midst of war but also, and more thoroughly, after Islamic rule had been
firmly established.

Almost all medieval Muslim historians credit their heroes with desecration
of Hindu idols and/or destruction of Hindu temples. The picture that emerges
has the following components, depending upon whether the iconoclast was
in a hurry on account of Hindu resistance or did his work at leisure after
a decisive victory:

1. The idols were mutilated or smashed or burnt or melted down if they
were made of precious metals;

2. Sculptures in relief on walls and pillars were disfigured or scraped
away or torn down;

3. Idols of stone and inferior metals or their pieces were taken away,
sometimes by cartloads, to be thrown down before the main mosque in

(a) the metropolis of the ruling Muslim sultan, and

(b) The holy cities of Islam, particularly Mecca, Medina and Baghdad;

4. There were instances of idols being turned into lavatory seats or
handed over to butchers to be used as weights while selling meat;

5. Brahmin priests and other holy men in and around the temple were
molested or murdered;

6. Sacred vessels and scriptures used in worship were defiled and scattered
or burnt:

7. Temples were damaged or despoiled or demolished or burnt down or
converted into mosques with some structural alterations or entire mosques
were raised on the same sites mostly with temple materials;

8. Cows were slaughtered on the temple sites so that Hindus could not
use them again.

This essay is to enable us to remember the sacrifice of those who attained
Veergati (Martyrdom) when faced against these forces of darkness that represented
religious bigotry that traumatized and tormented India and other parts
of our globe for Fourteen Hundred years. India has survived as a wounded
civilization to tell the story of this chilling horror. A horror that seems
too cruel to be true. The unfortunate part is that it was true and this
would become true once more in the future, if the forces of malevolence
again get the upper hand in India or in any part of the world.

This essay has been compiled from the writings of a cross section of
Historians comprising Sir Jadunath Sarkar , Rizwan Salim, Sita Ram Goel,
Ram Swarup, Arun Shourie, R.C. Mazumdar and a few others.

Epigraphic Evidence of the Construction of Masjids by destroying Hindu
temples

There are many mosques all over India which are known to local tradition
and the Archaeological Survey of India as built on the site of and, quite
frequently, from the materials of, demolished Hindu temples. Most of them
carry inscriptions invoking Allah and the Prophet, quoting the Quran and
giving details of when, how and by whom they were constructed. The inscriptions
have been deciphered and connected to their historical context by learned
Muslim calligraphers. They have been published by the Archaeological Survey
of India in its Epigraphica Indica Arabic and Persian Supplement.

The following few inscriptions have been selected in order to show that:

(1) destruction of Hindu temples continued throughout the period of
Muslim domination;

(2) it covered all parts of India - east, west, north, and south; and

(3) all Muslim dynasties, imperial and provincial, participated in the
"pious performance".

1. Qu'wat al-Islam Masjid, Qutub Minar, Delhi:

"This fort was conquered and the Jami Masjid built in the year 587 A.H
(Hejira Era) by the Amir Qutub-ud-din Aibak the slave of the Sultan,
Shahabuddin Ghori. According to the Epigraphica Indica Arabic and Persian
Supplement (1909-10, pp.3-4): "The materials of 27 idol temples, on each
of which 2,000,000 Delhiwals had been spent were used in the (construction
of) the mosque..." The year 587 H. corresponds to 1192 A.D. "Delhiwal was
a high-denomination coin current at that time in Delhi.

2. Masjid at Manvi in the Raichur District of Karnataka by Firuz Shah
Bahmani:

"Praise be to Allah that by the decree of the Parvardigar, a mosque
has been converted out of a temple as a Sign of religion in the reign of...the
Sultan who is the asylum of Faith Firuz Shah Bahmani who is the cause of
exuberant spring in the garden of religion" (1962, pp.56-57). The inscription
mentions the year 1406-07 A.D. as the time of construction.

"The Jami Masjid was built by Khan-i-Azam Ulugh Khan...who suppressed
the wretched infidels. He eradicated the idolatrous houses and mine of
infidelity, along with the idols...with the edge of the sword, and made
ready this edifice... he made its walls and doors out of the idols; the
back of every stone became the place for prostration of the believer" (1963,
pp.26-29). The date of construction is mentioned as 1462 A.D. in the reign
of Mahmud Shah I (Begada) of Gujarat.

4. Hammam Darwaza Masjid at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh in the reign of
Akbar, the Great Mughal:

"Thanks that by the guidance of the everlasting and living (Allah),
this house of infidelity became the niche of prayer. As a reward for that,
the Generous Lord constructed an abode for the builder in paradise" (1969,
P 375). Its chronogram yields the year 1567 A.D. in the reign Akbar, the
Great Mughal.

A local historian, Fasih-ud-Din, tells us that the temple had been built
earlier by Diwan Chaman Das, an official of the Mughal Government.

5. Jami Masjid at Ghoda in the Poona District of Maharashtra by
Mir Muhammad Zaman:

"O Allah! O Muhammad! O Ali! When Mir Muhammad Zaman made up his mind,
he opened the door of prosperity on himself by his own hand. He demolished
thirty three idol temples (and) by divine grace laid the foundation of
a building in this abode of perdition" (1933-34, p.24). The inscription
is dated 1586 A.D. when the Poona region was ruled by the Nizam Shahi sultans
of Ahmadnagar.

6. Gachinala Masjid at Cumbum in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh
by Muhammad Shah:

"He is Allah, may he be glorified...During the august rule of...Muhammad
Shah, there was a well-established idol-house in Kuhmum...Muhammad Salih
who prospers in the rectitude of the affairs of the Faith...razed to the
ground, the edifice of the idol-house and broke the idols in a manly fashion.
He constructed on its site a suitable mosque, towering above the buildings
of all" (1959-60, pp.64-66). The date of construction is mentioned as 1729-30
A.D. in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Though sites of demolished Hindu temples were mostly used for building
mosques and Idgahs; temple materials were often used in other Muslim monuments
as well. Archaeologists have discovered such materials, architectural as
well as sculptural, in quite a few forts, palaces, maqbaras, Sufi khanqahs,
madrasas, etc.

In Srinagar, Kashmir, temple materials can be seen in long stretches
of the stone embankments on both sides of the Jhelum.

The inscriptions on the walls of the Gopi Talav, a stepped well at Surat,
tell us that the well was constructed by Haidar Quli, the Mughal governor
of Gujarat, in 1718 A.D. in the reign of Farrukh Siyar. One of them says
that its bricks were taken from an idol temple". The other informs us that
Hiaider Quli Khan, during whose period tyranny has become extinct, laid
waste several idol temples in order to make this strong building firm...''
(1933-34. pp.37-44).

THE TEMPLE OF KHANDOBA AT JEJURI
This was one of the many temples that had been destroyed and converted
into a Mosque by the Muslim aggressors.

Shivaji Maharaj reconverted it into a temple. Even today, the temple
structure displays a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture. But in spite
of the trying circumstances of religious bigotry of the Muslim aggressors
in which he operated, Shivaji Maharaj never disrespected the Muslim faith.
Whenever a copy of the holy Koran fell into the hands of Maratha troops,
Shivaji Maharaj had given strict instructions to treat it with utmost respect
and hand it over to the local Maulavis (Muslim priests).

Literary evidence of Islamic iconoclasm vis-a-vis Hindu places of worship
is far more extensive. It covers a 1onger span of time, from the fifth
decade of the 7th century to the closing years of the eighteenth. It also
embraces a larger space, from Transoxiana in the north to Tamil Nadu in
the south, and from Afghanistan the west to Assam in the east.

Deception practiced by some Historians

Pseudo-secularist "historians" and Muslim apologists would have us believe
that medieval Muslim annalists were indulging in poetic exaggerations in
order to please their pious patrons. But archaeological explorations in
modern times have, however, provided physical proofs of literary descriptions.

The vast cradle of Hindu culture is literally littered with ruins of
temples and monasteries belonging to all sects of Sanatana Dharma- Buddhist,
Jain, Saiva, Sakta, Vaishnava and the rest.

The literary sources, like the epigraphic, provide evidence of the elation
which Muslims felt while witnessing or narrating these "pious deeds". A
few citations from Amir Khusro will illustrate the point. The instances
cited relate to the doings of Jalalud-Din Firuz Khilji, Alaud-Din Khilji
and the latter's military commanders. Khusro served as a court-poet of
six successive sultans at Delhi and wrote a masnavi in praise of each after
he had murdered his predecessor. Khusro was the dearest disciple of Shaikh
Nizamud-Din Awliya and has come to be honoured as a great sufi himself.

In our own times, Khusro is being hailed as the father of a composite
Hindu-Muslim culture and the pioneer of secularism. Dr. R.C. Majumdar,
whom the Pseudo-secularists malign as a "communalist historian" names him
as a "liberal Muslim'.

Here is what Amir Khusro has written:

1. Jhain: "Next morning he (Jalal-ud-din went again to the temples and
ordered their destruction ... While the soldiers sought every opportunity
of plundering, the Shah was engaged in burning the temples and destroying
the idols. There were two bronze idols of Brahma, each of which weighed
more than a thousand mans (a measure of weight). These were broken into
pieces and the fragments were distributed among the officers with orders
to throw them down at the gates of the Masjid on their return (to Delhi)"
(Miftab-ul-Futub)

2. Devagiri: "He (Ala-ud-Din) destroyed the temples of the idolaters
and erected pulpits and arches for mosques" (ibid).

3. Somanath: "They made the temple prostrate itself towards the Kaaba.
You may say that the temple first offered its prayers and then had a bath
(i.e. the temple was made to topple and fall into the sea)...He (Ulugh
Khan) destroyed all the idols and temples, but sent one idol, the biggest
of all idols, to the court of his Godlike Majesty and on that account in
that ancient stronghold of idolatry, the summons to prayers (Azzan)was
proclaimed so loudly that they heard it in Misr (Egypt) and Madain (Iraq)"
(Tarikh-i-Alai).

4. Delhi: "He (Ala-ud-Din) ordered the circumference of the new minar
to be made double of the old one (Qutub Minar)... The stones were dug out
from the hills and the temples of the infidels were demolished to furnish
a supply" (Ibid).

5. Ranthambhor: "This strong fort was taken by the slaughter of the
stinking Rai. Jhain was also captured, an iron fort, an ancient abode of
idolatry, and a new city of the people of the (muslim) faith arose. The
temple of Bahir (Bhairava) Deo and temples of other gods, were all razed
to the ground'' (lbid).

6. Brahmastpuri (Chidambaram): "Here he (Malik Kafur) heard that in
Brahmastpuri there was a golden idol ... he then determined on razing the
temple to the ground ..lt was the holy place of the Hindus which Malik
dug up from its foundations with the greatest care. And the heads of Brahmans
and idolaters danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet,
and blood flowed in torrents.

The stone idols called Ling Mahadeo which had been established a long
time at the place and on which the women of the infidels (Hindus) rubbed
their vaginas for (sexual) satisfaction. (Mark the extent of the derogatory
tone of the Islamic Saint Amir Khusro - Author). These, up to this time,
the kick of the horse of Islam had not attempted to break. The Musalmans
destroyed all the lingas, and Deo Narain fell down.

The Kutub Minar built by Kutub-ud-din Aibak. The Kutub Minar is one
of the earliest Islamic monuments in India. This Minar was built from the
columns of destroyed Hindu and Jain temples. It stands at the site of Pithoragarh
which was the capital of Prithiviraj Chauhan, the last Hindu ruler of Delhi.The
damaged motifs in this picture show clear Hindu origins - a testimony to
the vandalism of the Muslim aggressors. There are many such temples which
had been converted into mosques like the Bhoja Shala Mosque, the Gyan Vyapi
Mosque, the Krishna Janmabhoomi Idgah, apart from the now liberated Ramjanmabhoomi
at Ayodhya. The total runs to 3000 (Three Thousand). In the opinion
of the author, all such controversial structures should be taken possession
of by a national educational trust and be converted into schools for humanist
and rationalist education. This could be the first step in the long journey
for converting all places of religious worship all over the globe into
schools for humanist and rationalist education where humans can finally
be taught the futility of worshipping human ignorance termed as God and
the stupidity of fighting each other due to the different names we have
given to human ignorance.

For related graphic, visit the site:

http://members.tripod.com/~sudheerb/holocaust1.html

What Hiuen Tsang had seen in pre-Islamic India

Some historians say that the Hindu temples in North India had been destroyed
not by the Muslim invaders but by the White Huns who had invaded India
in the 5th century, i.e. 500 years before the first Muslims set their foot
in north India in the 10th century.

Hiuen Tsang, a Buddhist pilgrim, who came from China, after the invasion
of the White Huns, found many monasteries in pre-Islamic India. He said
they were in a splendid state. In his days the White Huns had invaded north
India and had even established their rule over Kashmir where Hiuen Tsang
saw 500 monasteries housing 5,000 monks It is, therefore, difficult to
hold them responsible for the disappearance of Buddhist centres in areas
where Hiuen Tsang had found them flourishing.

An explanation has to be found elsewhere. In any case, the upheaval
the White Huns caused was over by the middle of the sixth century. Moreover,
the temples and monasteries which Hiuen Tsang saw were only a few out of
many. He had not gone into the interior of any province, having confined
himself to the more famous Buddhist centres.

What Really Happened to Hindu Temples

So what was it that really happened to thousands upon thousands of temples
and monasteries? Why did they disappear and/or give place to another type
of monuments? How come that their architectural and sculptural fragments
got built into the foundations, doors, walls and domes of the Islamic edifices
which replaced them? These are crucial questions which should have been
asked by students of medieval Indian history.

But no historian worth his name has raised these questions squarely,
not to speak of finding accurate answers to them. No systematic study of
the subject has been made. What we have is stray references to the demolition
of a few Hindu temples, made by the more daring Hindu historians while
discussing the religious policies of this or that sultan.

Sir Jadunath Sarkar and Professor Sri Ram Sharma have given more attention
to the Islamic policy of demolishing Hindu temples and pointed an accusing
finger at the theological tenets which dictated that policy. But their
treatment of the subject is brief and their enumeration of temples destroyed
by Aurangzeb and the other Mughal emperors touches only the fringe of a
vast holocaust caused by the Theology of Islam all over the cradle of Hindu
Culture and throughout more than thirteen hundred years of Muslim occupation
of India.

What the Muslim Historians have to Say

Muslim historians, in India and abroad, have written hundreds of accounts
in which the progress of Islamic armies across the cradle of Hindu culture
is narrated, stage by stage and period by period.

A pronounced feature of these Muslim histories is a description - in
smaller or greater detail but always with considerable pride - of how the
Hindus were slaughtered en masse or converted by force, how hundreds of
thousands of Hindu men and women and children were captured as booty and
sold into slavery, how Hindu temples and monasteries were razed to the
ground or burnt down, and how images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses were destroyed
or desecrated.

Islamic Iconoclasm Today

A gigantic image of the Great Master - Buddha
at Bamiyan near Kabul in Afghanistan.
It is this image which has been threatened to be blown up by the Taliban,
the Islamic militia that rules Afghanistan. The statue faced its
first defilement at the hands of Islamic invaders when they invaded pre-dominantly
Buddhist Afghanistan in the 8th century
Incidentally the name Afghanistan is derived from the Sanskrit terms
Upa-gana-stan which means "Lands where the Allied tribes live".

Commandments of Allah (Quran) and precedents set by the Prophet (Sunnah)
are frequently cited by the authors in support of what the swordsmen and
demolition squads of Islam did with extraordinary zeal, not only in the
midst of war but also, and more thoroughly, after Islamic rule had been
firmly established. Islamic Theology supports the Destruction of ALL Non-Muslim
Places of Worship

A reference to the Quran and to the Theology of Islam as perfected by
the orthodox Imams, leaves little doubt about the violent and aggressive
nature of Islam.

Jihad is Allah's command to the Muslims to destroy the non- Muslims.
It is not at all necessary that the non-Muslims need have wronged the Muslims,
for them to be attacked by the Muslims. The "crime" that the non-Muslims
do not believe in Islam is enough for the Muslims to attack the non-Muslims.
Here is what the Quran says:

"I have been commanded by Allah to fight the unbelievers until they
believe in Allah and His prophet and follow the laws of Islam. It is only
then that the safety of their lives and property may be guaranteed." (Sahih
Tirmzi, Vol. 2: 192)

And why should they persecute and annihilate the non-Muslims? The Koran
explains the point:

"God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions
against the gift of paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill,
and are killed; that is a promise; binding on God.... And who fulfills
his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with
Him that is the mighty triumph..." (Repentance: 192)

Jihad, as can be seen, is a covenant between Allah and the Muslims;
the former offers paradise to the latter for killing and plundering the
non-Muslims without having any moral qualm in return for Paradise. Obviously,
according to Islamic theology the massacre of the fellow-beings and the
plunder of their possession is an act of great righteousness because it
attracts the highest reward - that is, paradise. The Quran justifies booty,
the plunder of the infidels in the following words:

"It is not for any prophet to have prisoners, until he make wide slaughter
in land.....

Eat of what you have taken as booty, it is lawful and good." (The Spoils:
65)

Here is the essence of Islamic Jihad: Invade the non-Muslims in the
name of Allah for the sheer crime of not believing in Him; first carry
out an extensive carnage of the people then all their property including
women and children become legally and morally the possessions of the Muslims,
who are at liberty to use them as they think fit.

The Physical Evidence - Mutilated Hindu Architecture

The apologists for Islam - the most clogged among them are some Pseudo-secularist
historians and politicians - have easily got away with the plea that Muslim
court scribes having succumbed to poetic exaggeration in order to please
their pious patrons. Their case is weakened when they cite the same sources
in support of their speculations or when the question is asked as to why
the patron needed stories of bloodshed and wanton destruction for feeding
their piety.

There are, however witnesses who are not beyond recall who can confirm
that the Muslim court scribes were not at all foisting fables on their
readers. These are the hundreds of thousands of sculptural and architectural
fragments which stand arrayed in museums and drawing rooms all over the
world, or which are awaiting to be picked up by public and private collectors,
or which stare at us from numerous Muslim monuments.

These are the thousands of Hindu temples and monasteries which either
stand on the surface in a state of ruination or lie buried under the earth
waiting for being brought to light by the archaeologist's spade. These
are the thousands of Muslim edifices, religious as well as secular, which
occupy the sites of Hindu temples and monasteries and/or which have been
constructed from materials of those monuments. All these witnesses carry
unimpeachable evidence of the violence that was done to them, deliberately
and by malevolent hands.

The Silence of Art Historians regarding the mutilation of Hindu Art,
Architecture and Sculpture

So far no one has cared to make these witnesses speak and relate the
story of how they got ruined, demolished, dislocated, dismembered, defaced
mutilated and burnt. Recent writers on Hindu architecture and sculpture
- their tribe is multiplying fast, mostly for commercial reasons - ignore
the ghastly wounds which these witnesses show at the very first sight,
and dwell on the beauties of the limbs that have survived or escaped injury.

Many a time they have to resort to their imagination for supplying what
should have been there but is missing. All they seem to care for is building
their own reputations as historians of Hindu art. If one draws their attention
to the mutilations and disfigurements suffered by the subjects under study,
one is met with a stunned silence or denounced downright as a Hindu chauvinist
out to raise 'demons from the past with the deliberate intention of causing
communal strife. I, therefore, propose to present only one case out the
innumerable of these in order to show in what shape such monuments are
and what tale of vandalism they have to tell.

Hindu Monuments of Pre-Islamic Delhi

Archaeological excavations during 1992-95 at Lalkot, a Tomar citadel
near Mehrauli before Delhi was occupied by Muhammad Ghori in 1192, have
uncovered the following:
- Antiquities in the levels of Period II (Early Sultanate). A number
of sculptural and architectural fragments in stone of the Rajput period
have been noticed scattered on the surface or found in the levels of Period
II, either in the deposits or reused in construction of early Sultanate
structures.

They included a Varaha head; amalakas; adhisthana mouldings; pillar
bases; parts of sculptured door jambs, one with maithuna figures; moulded
and decorated architectural fragments; small sculptures showing Tirthankara,
deities, vase etc.; Nandi figure and a lion's head which can be connected
with the story of stone lion figures at the gate of the palaces of Anang
Pal II.

The evidence of stone Nandi suggests for the first time the existence
of a Shiva temple in the vicinity. The pre-Muslim association of this structural
period of early Sultanate age is evidenced by a number of scattered or
reused architectural and sculptural stone fragments. Among them the hind
part of a figure of Nandi, the Vahana of Lord Shiva, reused in the foundation
of wall as a rubble.

India in the Eyes of Pseudo Secular Historians of Our Times

Their interpretation of Indian history recognizes only the economic
reality. And although economic reality is an important element of human
existence. It is not the only one. Issues like Religious Fanaticism, exist
independent of economic factors. These Historians view the Muslim invasions
of India purely as raids of bandits out who came to loot the material wealth
of India. To loot the temples of Somnath, Thanesar, Mathura, Kanauj, etc.
Yes the Muslim invaders did loot the country's material wealth. But they
also destroyed the Nalanda University, and burned down the countless treatises
that were stored there. The Muslim invaders converted millions of Hindus
to Islam at the point of the Sword, they also massacred millions more and
had a practice of making a tower of severed enemy (Hindu) heads in the
main square of a town after its conquest. They abducted many Hindu women
and held them as concubines in Harems.

This list of crimes against humanity on part of the medieval Muslim
invaders could be endless. Now these crimes do not have any economic angle
at all. But all the same they were committed and they reflect in clear
terms a barbaric and backward attitude. About this there is no doubt. The
Pseudo Secular Historians try to mask this reality. And in this they are
guilt of hiding facts and distorting history. They write that Mahmud Ghaznavi
only destroyed temples to plunder their wealth, not for religious motives:
a theory in flagrant contradiction with all the contemporary evidence.
Mahmud was a devout Muslim, who copied the Quran "for the benefit of his
soul". He refused the huge ransom which the Hindus offered in return for
an idol which he had captured, since he preferred to be an idol breaker
rather than an idol-seller". He destroyed many non-wealthy Hindu temples
and left wealthy mosques untouched. He wasted time in non-profit acts of
desecration, like hanging a cow's tongue around an idol's neck. On such
facts, no honest historian would have built the conclusion that Mahmud
was led by economical rather that fanatical religious motives.

What Really Happened in India during the Muslim Invasions?

Invaders at a very low level of civilisation and culture worth the name,
from Arabia and west Asia, began entering India from the early eighth century
onwards. Islamic invaders demolished countless Hindu temples, shattered
uncountable sculptures and idols, plundered innumerable palaces and forts
of Hindu kings, killed vast numbers of Hindu men and carried off Hindu
women. This story, the educated Indians - and a lot of even the illiterate
Indians - know very well. Indian History books at School and College do
not tell the story in its true detail. Hence many Indians do not seem to
recognize that the alien Muslim marauders destroyed the historical evolution
of what was a spiritually, philosophically and materially advanced civilisation.

Pre-Islamic Hindu civilization was the most richly imaginative culture,
and the most vigorously creative society.

The damaged armless image of the bodyguard of Shiva-Maheshwara as depicted
at the Hoysaleshwara Temple complex at Halebid. Hindu temples built
in the ancient times were perfect works of art. The evidence of the ferocity
with which the Muslim invaders must have struck at the sculptures of gods
and goddesses, and apsaras, kings and queens, dancers and musicians is
frightful. At so many ancient temples of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,
for example, shattered portions of stone images still lie scattered in
the temple courtyards. Considering the fury used on the idols and
sculptures, the stone- breaking axe must have been applied to thousands
upon thousands of images of hypnotic beauty. Giving proof of the resentment
that men belonging to an inferior civilisation feel upon encountering a
superior civilisation of individuals with a more refined culture.

It is clear that India at the time when Muslim invaders turned towards
it (8th to 11th century) was a rich region for its religion and culture:
and its fine arts and letters and even for its wealth in terms of material
sciences, art and architecture, precious and semi-precious stones, gold
and silver.

Tenth century India was also too far advanced than its contemporaries
in the East and the West for its achievements in the realms of speculative
philosophy and scientific theorizing, mathematics and knowledge of nature's
workings. Hindus of the early medieval period were unquestionably superior
in more things than the Chinese, the Persians (including the Sassanians),
the Romans and the Byzantines of the immediate preceding centuries.

The Finesse of pre-Islamic Hindu Art and Architecture

Medieval India until the Islamic invaders destroyed it, was history's
most richly imaginative culture and one of the world's most advanced civilisations
of those times. Look at the Hindu art that Muslim iconoclasts severely
damaged or destroyed. Ancient Hindu sculpture is vigorous and sensual in
the highest degree-more fascinating than any other figural art created
anywhere else on earth. (Only statues created by classical Greek artists
are in the same class as Hindu temple sculpture.)

Ancient Hindu temple architecture is the most awe-inspiring, ornate
and spell-binding architectural style. (The Gothic art of cathedrals in
Western Europe is the only other religious architecture that is comparable
with the intricate architecture of ancient Hindu temples such as those
at Khajuraho, Madurai, Dwarka, Kanchipuram,etc.) No artists of any historical
civilisation have ever revealed the same genius as ancient India's artists
and artisans.

The Devastation caused by Islamic Iconoclasm

Their minds filled with venom against the idol-worship and the idol-worshippers
of India, the Muslims destroyed any Hindu temple that came their way. This
is a historical fact, mentioned by Muslim chroniclers and others of the
time. When the Muslims faced Hindu resistance and were forced to retreat
they merely damaged the Hindu temples they could lay their hands on but
the temples remained standing. This is what happened in South India.

But a large number - not hundreds but many thousands - of the ancient
Hindu temples in North India were broken into shards of cracked stone.
In the ancient cities of Varanasi and Mathura, Ujjain and Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi
and Dwaraka, not one temple survives whole and intact from the ancient
times. The wrecking of Hindu temples went on from the early years of the
8th century to well past 1700 AD, a period of almost 1000 years. Every
Muslim ruler in Delhi (or Governor of Provinces) spent most of his time
warring against Hindu kings in the north and the south, the east and the
west: and almost every Muslim Sultan and his army commanders indulged in
large-scale destructions of Hindu temples and idols.

It is easy to conclude that virtually every Hindu temple built in the
ancient times is a perfect work of art. The evidence of the ferocity with
which the Muslim invaders must have struck at the sculptures of gods and
goddesses, and apsaras, kings and queens, dancers and musicians is frightful.
At so many ancient temples of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, for example,
shattered portions of stone images still lie scattered in the temple courtyards.

Considering the fury used on the idols and sculptures, the stone-breaking
axe must have been applied to thousands upon thousands of images of hypnotic
beauty. Giving proof of the resentment that men belonging to an inferior
civilisation feel upon encountering a superior civilisation of individuals
with a more refined culture,

Islamic invaders from Arabia and western Asia broke and burned everything
beautiful they came across in India. So morally degenerate were the Muslim
Sultans that, rather than attract Hindu "infidels" to Islam through force
of personal example and exhortation, they just built a number of mosques
at the sites of torn down temples - and foolishly pretended that they had
triumphed over the minds and culture of the Hindus. I have seen stones
and columns of Hindu temples incorporated into the architecture of several
mosque, including the Jama Masjid and Ahmed Shah Masjid in Ahmedabad; the
mosque in the Uparkot fort of
Junagadh (Gujarat) and in Vidisha (near Bhopal); the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra
right next to the famous dargah in Ajmer-and the currently controversial
Bhojshala "mosque" in Dhar (near Indore).

Hindu culture was at its imaginative best and vigorously creative when
the severely-allergic-to-images Muslims entered India. Islamic invaders
did not just destroy countless temples and constructions but also suppressed
cultural and religious practices; damaged the pristine vigour of Hindu
culture; prevented the intensification of Hindu culture, debilitating it
permanently; stopped the development of Hindu arts: ended the creative
impulse in all realms of thought and action; damaged the people's cultural
pride, disrupted the transmission of values and wisdom, cultural practices
and tradition from one generation to the next; destroyed the proper historical
evolution of Hindu kingdoms and society; affected the acquisition of knowledge,
research and reflection and violated the moral basis of Hindu society.

Slaughter of the Civilian Hindu Population

The Muslim Swordsmen also slaughtered a lot of Hindus civilians away
from the battlefield. This was something that the Hindus were not used
to. Although pre-Islamic India was not exactly a zone of peace, and there
used to be warfare, but there was also a code of warfare too.

War took place from Sunrise up to Sunset

Warfare under the shadow of darkness was considered foul

In the battlefield, an adversary who laid down his arms was not to be
slaughtered.

No civilian population was ever killed.

This code of warfare was followed by the Hindus right up to the Muslim
invasions, and this was one reason for the successive Hindu defeats at
the hands of the Muslims who had no qualms for foul means during warfare
and even in peace times.

Needless to add that the Muslim invaders converted millions of Hindus
to Islam at the point of the Sword, they also massacred millions more and
had a practice of making a tower of severed enemy (Hindu) heads in the
main square of a town after its conquest. They abducted many Hindu women
and held them as concubines in Harems.

Most Muslim rulers were fanatical proselytizers of their religion. Under
the rulership of Delhi Sultans the public worship at Hindu temples was
generally forbidden, Hindus were not allowed to build new temples or repair
old ones. Some rulers like Allah-ud-din Khilji and Feroz Shah Tughlak would
desecrate temples upon the conquest of new territory as a symbol of victory
of Islam. One some occasions a particularly fanatical Muslim king like
Sikander Lodi would in a fit of paranoia desecrate or destroy temples even
in peaceful times.

"In 1669 Aurangzeb issued a general order for the destruction of Hindu
temples." As per rough estimates about 3000 (Three Thousand) temples were
destroyed and converted into Mosques in the 750 years of Muslim rule in
India. But let bygones be bygones. The fact is mentioned here only to set
the record straight. In my personal view all such controversial structures
should be taken possession of by an educational trust and be converted
into schools to preach the unity of Humankind. And eventually not just
such controversial structures, but all places of religious worship should
cease to be prayer houses and should be used to house schools for humanist
and rationalist education. (This obviously is the author's personal view)

"During the sultanate and later under Aurangzeb, many hundreds of thousands
of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. Shah Jahan appointed a superintendent
of converts charged with the special responsibility for making converts.
The sentences of criminals and prisoners of war were readily remitted and
the individuals were granted daily allowances upon embracing Islam. The
conversion of Muslims to Hinduism, on the other hand, constituted the crime
of apostasy and was punished by death. The Jaziya, a special tax levied
on all non-Muslims, was both a heavy financial -burden and a badge of inferiority
borne by the Hindu; it also stimulated conversions to Islam.

The Quww'at-ul-Islam Mosque (Power of Islam).
This Mosque which stands in the Kutub Minar complex was built by Kutub-ud-din
Aibak, the first Muslim ruler of Delhi. The Quww'at-ul-Islam Mosque (Power
of Islam) is the first mosque erected in India by Muslim invaders after
the Islamic aggression of India. This Mosque was built with the columns
from destroyed Hindu and Jain temples. It stands at the site of Pithoragarh
which was the capital of Prithiviraj Chauhan the last Hindu ruler of Delhi.

Thus, during the 7 centuries of Mohammedan rule a significant portion
of our countrymen had to change their religion by force of circumstances.
And in 4 erstwhile Indian Provinces viz. West Punjab, Sindh, East Bengal
and NWFP the Muslim converts came to constitute a majority by the present
century. The multi-religious character of India is largely an ugly litter
of intolerance, persecution, penal taxes, conversion of faith at the point
of the sword, discriminatory civil and criminal laws, defilement and conversion
of places of worship from that of one faith to another, all of which the
country witnessed during the seven centuries of Muslim rule.

The Psychological Damage to the Hindu Mind

The Hindus suffered immense psychic damage. The Muslims also plundered
the wealth of the Hindu kingdoms, impoverished the Hindu populace, and
destroyed thc prosperity of India. The Psychological damage to the Hindu
Mind, due to Muslim rule, was immense and unmeasurable.

Today after a gap of one thousand years, the innate spirit of humanness
that is the basis of Hindu Culture can again breathe freely and it is about
time that we recollect it and the successes it propelled the human mind
to achieve. The human mind embodied in the ancient sages, rishis, munis
and sanyasis - scientists in modern parlance.

We need to remember our past clearly and vividly, lest we forget, our
capability to contribute to the repository of human knowledge, lest we
forget our capability to activate the indomitable human mind residing within
us, lest we forget our humane instincts that gave us a sagacious and charitable
view of life along with progress - economic, technological and material.
All that which goes under the term CIVILIZATION.

The human spirit in Ancient India has given to the world, the values
of non-violence, religious tolerance, renunciation alongwith many elements
of knowledge in fields like production technology, mechanical engineering,
shipbuilding, navigation, architecture, civil engineering, medical science,
physics, chemistry, logic, astronomy, mathematics and so on.

We have to live up to this legacy that can help human beings in all
corners of our globe to rejuvenate our spirit not to conquer one another,
but to conquer oneself; not to destroy, but to build; not to hate, but
to love; not to isolate oneself, but to integrate everyone into one global
society and to achieve much more in the future to enrich human civilisation
to result in: "The maximum welfare of the maximum number" or as in Sanskrit
it is called: "Loko Samasto Sukhino Bhavantu" and "Samasta Janaanaam Sukhino
Bhavantu."

In the next post we shall see what Different Historians have to say
about the Hindu Holocaust.